There's no coming back for the Horns

Michigan guard Derrick Walton Jr. (left) and Texas forward Jonathan Holmes, an Antonian High product, chase after a loose ball Saturday. UT lost 79-65, falling short of the Sweet 16 for the sixth straight year.

Photo: Jeffrey Phelps / Associated Press

MILWAUKEE — When it was over, Rick Barnes insisted he had no regrets. Not about saving his timeouts until after Michigan put Texas in a huge early hole. Not about waiting to change his lineup and his defense until it was too late. And certainly not about a season in which almost everything else went right.

Amid an exhausting barrage of Wolverines 3-pointers, the Longhorns' stay in the NCAA tournament ended Saturday with a 79-65 loss in the round of 32 at the Bradley Center. For the sixth year in a row, UT fell short of the Sweet 16, and for the sixth year in a row, Barnes said he wasn't happy about that.

This time, though, Barnes and the Longhorns were neither beating themselves up about what might have been nor dreading what was coming next. Yes, they would've rather made a few of the shots that clanged off the rim from only a few feet away. Yes, they would've rather found a way to get a few more hands in the faces of Michigan shooters.

But even in the immediate aftermath of a comeback that fell short, they couldn't bring themselves to call what they'd done a failure.

“We gave Texas a good name again,” guard Javan Felix said of a team that followed last year's 16-18 debacle with a 24-11 finish. “We put the program where it needs to be.”

Saturday afternoon, that program — seeded seventh in the Midwest Region — momentarily was in position to pull off an upset of the second-seeded Wolverines (27-8). After falling behind by 15 points in the game's frenzied first 12 minutes (with Barnes never calling timeout to slow the bleeding), the Longhorns scratched back to within 58-52 with eight minutes left in the game.

But Michigan never stopped making shots, usually daggers from long range. Nik Stauskas drained four 3-pointers, and the Wolverines finished with 14 of them. The three most crushing ones came from Glenn Robinson III, Spike Albrecht and Caris LaVert, who each did their part to snuff out UT's rally over a six-possession span late in the game.

“Some of them were tough,” UT guard Demarcus Holland said, shaking his head. “And some of them were open.”

Still, Barnes refused to blame Michigan's 3-point accuracy for the Longhorns' downfall. Instead, he cited his own team's 37.1 percent field-goal shooting, saying UT “missed a boatload of shots right around the rim.”

A couple of those were missed by center Cameron Ridley, who mysteriously was ignored in the offense early in the game and then couldn't get much going when he started getting the ball. Ridley, who won UT's first tournament game with a buzzer-beater, said his lower back tightened up early in Saturday's game, but said he shook it off by the second half.

During their comeback, the Longhorns received big lifts from Isaiah Taylor (22 points, five assists) and Martez Walker (14 points, seven rebounds). Those two guards are part of a team that will return all 10 scholarship players next season, and who figure to start as one of the Big 12 favorites instead of being picked eighth, like they were last October.

“It's going to be different,” Barnes said. “That's going to be the fun part.”

Mike Finger has worked for the Express-News since 1999, writing about the Texas Longhorns, the Big 12, the NBA and the NFL before becoming a sports columnist. He's covered 13 Spurs postseasons, six Final Fours and more than a dozen college bowl games.